Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.

In 1860 Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. With very little support in the slaveholding states of the South, he swept the North and was elected president in 1860. His election prompted seven southern slave states to form the Confederate States of America before he was sworn into office. No compromise or reconciliation was found regarding slavery and secession.

After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the North enthusiastically rallied behind the Union. Lincoln concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war. His primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the controversial ex parte Merryman decision. Lincoln averted potential British intervention in the war by defusing the Trent Affair in late 1861. His complex moves toward ending slavery centered on the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Lincoln used the U.S. Army to protect escaped slaves, encouraged the border states to outlaw slavery, and helped push through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which permanently outlawed slavery. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Ulysses S. Grant. He also made major decisions on Union war strategy; for example: a naval blockade that shut down the South's normal trade; moves to take control of Kentucky and Tennessee; and using gunboats to gain control of the southern river system. Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond; each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded in 1865.

An exceptionally astute politician deeply involved with power issues in each state, Lincoln reached out to "War Democrats" (those who supported the North against the South), and managed his own re-election campaign in the 1864 presidential election. As the leader of the moderate faction of the Republican Party, Lincoln confronted Radical Republicans, who demanded harsher treatment of the South, War Democrats, who called for more compromise, anti-war Democrats (called Copperheads), who despised him, and irreconcilable secessionists, who plotted his assassination. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by appealing to the American people with his powers of oratory, and by carefully planned political patronage. His Gettysburg Address of 1863 became an iconic endorsement of the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. Lincoln held a moderate view of Reconstruction, seeking to reunite the nation speedily through a policy of generous reconciliation in the face of lingering and bitter divisiveness. Six days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer.

Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents.

↑Brown, John Howard (editor), and Rossiter (editor) Johnson. The Twentieth century biographical dictionary of notable Americans: brief biographies of authors, administrators, clergymen, commanders, editors, engineers, jurists, merchants, officials, philanthropists, scientists, statesmen, and others who are making American history. (Boston, Mass.: The Biographical Society. Reprinted by Gale Research, 1968., 1904), vol 6, page 426-430 "... on the evening of April 14, 1865, the President, Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Clara Harris and Major Ruthbone occupied a box at Ford's Theatre, Washington to witness the play "Our American Cousin." At 10:30 in the evening an obscure actor, entered the President's box from the rear of the stage and holding a pistol to the President's head, fired. The President fell forward unconscious, and in the confusion which followed the assassin leaped upon the stage but broke his leg in the leap, his spur being entangled in the American flag that draped the box. The President was carried to a house opposite the theatre where, on the morning of April 15, 1865, he died. On April 19, 1865, the funeral took place at the White House. The body was laid in state at the White House, and was there viewed by a great number of people. It was guarded by a company of high officers of the army and navy. The assassin of the President was found in a barn by a squadron of troops April 27, 1865, and was shot by a soldier before the officer could demand his surrender. The remains of the President lay in state in Baltimore, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland and Chicago; and at each place immense funeral processions marched through the streets and the whole country was in mourning. The funeral car reached Springfield, Ill., having travelled a distance of nearly 2000 miles, and the body was buried in Oak Ridge cemetery, May 4, 1865. A monument of white marble marks the spot.".